In today's interconnected digital world, online users willingly or unwittingly provide direct and/or indirect information about themselves that may be used to informally and/or formally profile themselves. The process of profiling online users based on information provided is commonly referred to as online tracking or behavioral profiling.
Online tracking or behavioral profiling occurs for a multitude of reasons that include, but are not limited to: (1) marketing purposes to provide useful services such as up selling and cross selling, or web site relevance to particular types of visitors, (2) security purposes across all levels (i.e., business, community, nationally, etc.) to facilitate in understanding potential threats and resolve and/or prevent criminal activities, (3) intelligence gathering purposes to facilitate more effective interactions and/or promotions for specific users, and (4) friendly/“echo chamber”/judgment purposes to identify like-minded users and/or make an assessment (e.g., determine an online user's associations, etc.).